A sleeve joint of that type is described for example on page 314 of the Chassis Handbook, Heiβing/Ersoy, 1st Edition 2007, ISBN 978-3-8348-0105-0.
Nowadays sleeve joints are used for various purposes in vehicles and are press-fitted for example into bearing eyes of spring links, wheel carriers or shock absorber struts. However, the press fitting of the joint or its outer sleeve into a bearing eye often encounters conflicting aims. The press-fitting force that is determined by the interference fit overlap of the outer sleeve diameter relative to the bearing eye diameter and the friction coefficients, has to reach a minimum value in order to ensure a proper interference fit of the joint in the axial direction. This interference fit is determined by established minimum press-out forces or dynamic loads. However, due to the interference fit overlap the diameter of the outer sleeve can be reduced to such an extent that the movement resistance torque of the ball sleeve increases. Such an increase is often undesired since its result is to impede proper adjustment of the chassis components and hence adversely affect the comfort of the suspension. Furthermore, such an increase is difficult to control and depends almost only on the diameter tolerances of the components. To be able in some degree to control the torque increase, it is therefore necessary to specify very precise and therefore expensive tolerance limits.